2. For the history educators – this site is looking at “the man behind Hitler” Joesph Gobbels – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goebbels/ and some of the propaganda he produced – http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goebbels/gallery/index.html

3. From History on the Net http://www.historyonthenet.com/Nazi_Germany/nazigermanymain.htm This site looks at Nazi Germany

4. Open Chemistry - http://openchemistry.co.uk/ this is an open chemistry site producing free resources availzable to all. Another good one for chemistry is http://periodictable.com/ and also http://www.periodicvideos.com/

5. Crime mapper - http://maps.police.uk/ this is a UK police tool that mashes data from various sources with maps to produce interesting results – searchable by area. This is a great tool for Humanities and information technology.

6. Commoncraft show – Cloud computing in plain english http://commoncraft.com/cloud-computing-video This is another BRILLIANT resource from Lee LeFever and the guys at Commoncraft. This is a very useful professional development resource and resource for teaching computing and computers.

7. Firefox turns 5 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ULDH90H530&feature=player_embedded This is a video celebrating 5 years of Mozilla’s firefox browser. The video is fun and raises some interesting questions from its unique perspective. This is another great resource for teaching computing and professional development.

8. Darwin, a naturalists voyage -http://www.cnrs.fr/cw/dossiers/dosdarwinE/darwin.html This science, biology and history themed site provides an interesting insight into the Journey of Charles Darwin. Click on the link and watch the animation and listen to the sound track.

9 And finally from a blog I subscribe to – Information is beautiful – http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/interesting-easy-beautiful-true/

1. The Maths Apprentice - http://www.mathapprentice.com/Activity/explore.html – this is a fun primary and middle years site for mathematics. Directed at the younger audience. Worth considering using with an IWB.

2. Kids online – me and mymaths - http://www.kidsolr.com/math/math.html – again for the yiounger middle years audience, but a useful amth site with potential for IWB use too.

3. Dan’s Maths - http://www.dansmath.com/ – this sit is directed at the more senior school audience but is still applicable to midle school students

4. Maths helpAtube - http://www.mathatube.com/ – Video tutorialsa dn resources for mathematics – this is a great site well worth a forage. While not directly associated but worth investigating is teachertube – http://www.teachertube.com

5. US Government Data - http://www.data.gov/ this is a great source of accurate information and statistics. Applicable to mathematics, humanities and many other subject areas. This is a great resource.

6. Infographic Maps – http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/30-superb-examples-of-infographic-maps/ Web designer depot is a blog I subscribe to and it provide a wide range of interesting sites and resources. This one has some excellent examples of inforgraphics that are well worth looking at.

7. Ofcom report on Children and Media – http://www.ofcom.org.uk/consumer/2009/10/more-children-have-broadband-in-the-bedroom/ OfCom is the Office of Communication in the UK. This offering is a report on Media and children. Here is one statistic worth considering “35 per cent of 12-15s and 16 per cent of 8-11s now have web access in their bedrooms“. Worth also visiting is the mashable post on net usage http://mashable.com/2009/10/14/net-usage-nielsen/

8. Online comic creation tool – Howtoons – http://www.howtoons.com/ – A nice online cartoon/comic tool which allows you to export as a PDF file. Free

9. How to give a lousy presentation – http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/aug2009/sb20090825_379576.htm This is one of those time to refelct articles. As you read through this post do you cringle a little?

As always these sites are also posted on my Delicious account - http://del.icio.us/achurches

Here is my weekly catch from the net.

1. Alternative to – http://alternativeto.net/desktop this website is present you with alternative application to common or popular software and web based tools. This is an excellent tool for those of us with limited budgets.

2.Science visualisations – http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/08/visualizations/all/1# This is a wired science sumamtion of the best visualisation videos of 2009. This is an excellent resource for science teachers and can add variety into your teaching program. This opbviously appeals to the visual learner

3. How are maps made up from aerial and satellite images – http://qanda.encyclopedia.com/question/topographic-maps-created-aerial-and-satellite-photographs-78979.html – this is an article I found recently which explained how topo maps use images. very interesting and useful for the humanities students and particulalry the geographers.

4. What browser – http://www.whatbrowser.org/ this is a useful resource site for IT classes and also for explaining about a web browser. This site looks at trhe web btrowser youa re using and provides you with some insights into it. For those who are interested it also links to a time line for web browsers - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_web_browsers#Graphical_Timeline

5. e-Glossary http://www.glencoe.com/apps/eGlossary612/grade.php this site produced by McGraw-Hill provides a useful and age specific glossary of mathematical terms. A useful learning aid for teachers and students alike.

Hope these are useful – As always I ave posted these to my Del.icio.us account - http://delicious.com/achurches

Google maps – North Head

However North Head for us was a great family trip, as the Kids, T and I donned head lamps and explored the tunnels, many carved out of the bedrock. Here are some of the pictures.

As we approach ANZAC day it is well worth considering the efforts our forefathers put in to protect us. This site, while never used in anger, was built without the advantages of our modern machinery, to protect us from a very real threat. The conditions that the servicemen lived and worked in here were better than many abroad but were not by any stretch of the imagination luxury.

We are here today because of there service and sacrifice. It is fitting that more and more of our youth are attending ANZAC day services. I know mine are.

]]> http://edorigami.edublogs.org/2009/04/23/north-head-visit/feed/ 2 http://edorigami.edublogs.org/2009/01/14/starter-sheet-google-earth/ http://edorigami.edublogs.org/2009/01/14/starter-sheet-google-earth/#comments Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:43:54 +0000 andrewch http://edorigami.edublogs.org/?p=645

Tool or technology:GIS or Geographical Information System. Google Earth – Downloaded and installed client, internet connection required

Curriculum area:

Humanities

Synopsis:

This starter sheet looks at the power of Google Earth. While it only looks at one aspect of the tool, the Global Awareness Layers, particularly the Crisis in Darfur, this tool has a range of other uses in a wide variety of subject areas especially science with the Google sky feature, the Global volcanism projects and alike.

Link: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/Starter+Sheets

Essentially this is a tactile approach to Google earth. Watch the video here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLconRxEyzc

Tactile Google Earth

I like google earth, its a great tool that suits visual learner well. This approach makes it a very good tool for our kinesthetic learners too. I suspect that a smartboard with google earth would also yield similar results too. Particularly since the smartboard is touch sensitive rather than requiring a pen.

Increasingly we are seeing the need for the tactile interface in many situations. I feel that this is the more natural of interfaces, it is certainly one of the primary method exploration we have all used since our earliest years. The use of gestures to manipulate objects is also very natural. Too enlarge an object grab it and stretch, to close it push it aside.

Developments like these will make integrating technologies much easier as the speed of uptake will be quicker and the move from being literate to fluent faster.

The company that produced this video is  – http://www.ubiqwindow.jp/ENG/english.htm

Nice Find Mel, thanks for posting it.

http://maps.met.police.uk/

This is a very useful and interesting mash up between Google Maps adn the Metropolitan police database adn crime statistics. The result shows trends, current statistics overlaid on a map of the greater London Area.

This is the initial view of the London Area and the pop up bubble as you click on a Ward.

If you Zoom in you can drill into the subwards within the wards and look at the crime statistics and trends in a very detailed area.

http://www.googlelittrips.org/

This is an interesting approach to a virtual field trip. Using Google Earth, a browser and your internet connection you are able to take a literature trip on your favourite story (well from the selection they have available) .

This one is Homer’s Odyssey Submitted by Matthew Hart, Granada High School, Livermore, CA.

Here is what they say

“Placing the Odyssey’s locales is difficult. There are several different versions competing, all backed by serious critics. One new book actually suggests that Troy was located in England!

I’ve included two versions here. The Odyssey-1B.kmz is a very traditional, Greek-mainland-centric version. The Odyssey-2B.kmz is a more modern, Mediterranean-wide version. My preference is the second version as it lines up better with Virgil and makes more sense in some key spots.”

Thanks Richard – Nice spotting

http://digitalexplorer.co.uk/google-earth/

This is a useful site (Thanks Ewen) The site has resources for using Google Earth

Namely a manual (82 page PDF file) and a series of examples of virtual fieldwork using google earth

This is a very useful

http://iraq.reuters.com/

This is compelling viewing and well supported by timelines, profiles, maps (see below) and resources (links to a wide range of sites).

Word of Caution – Some material shows the graphic reality of war